What the military of the future will look like, from hypervelocity weapons to self-driving boats

From using deep learning to strategize wars before they even begin to outfitting self-driving vehicles to move without human control, the US military is trying to master a number of exciting technologies. Some, like artificially-intelligent "killer robots" bring up ethical dilemmas.

The Brookings Institution recently interviewed Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and asked him about the trending technology of the military and what the force of the future might look like.

Both corporations and the military are pursuing deep learning, which uses computing power and tons of data to help with decision-making.

AP/Alan Brandt

In a military context, mastering deep learning could help the Pentagon run an entire war in the digital realm — before any shots are fired. Instead of war-gaming between generals, computers can help predict what the best way to win might be.

Deep learning goes hand-in-hand with artificial intelligence (AI), which could make the US military much more lethal — but there are serious ethical considerations.

Fabrizio Bensch/ Reuters

"Smart" machines can be used to help military leaders strategize out battles before they even begin, but having weapons like aerial drones use AI to target and kill enemy combatants brings up the "terminator conundrum," Selva said.

Mastering AI also lends itself to advanced robotics, a field where the military has already invested heavily.

While the last decade has seen a revolution in drone aircraft technology, the military has also been working on autonomous vehicles that operate underwater and on land.

The Pentagon has even tested robots that can carry gear for ground troops, "and for the water, they’ve developed self-driving boats which can network together to do all kinds of missions, from fleet defense to close-in surveillance, without putting sailors at risk," Defense Secretary Ash Carter said this month.

The Cold War may be over, but the nukes are still getting upgrades. "I don't think you can exaggerate the importance of the nuclear enterprise in any measure," Selva said.

Though treaties are reducing nuclear stocks around the world, the aging nukes that are left are either being refurbished or getting slight modifications, though some experts warn this is fueling a new arms race.

A test B61-12 nose assembly fired from Sandia National Laboratories’ Davis gun splashes water from an 8-foot-deep pool as a 2,000-pound reaction mass sails into the air from the other end of the gun in a successful impact test at New Mexico Tech’s Energetic Materials Research & Testing Center. The reaction mass eliminates the recoil load in the gun chassis during firing.Sandia Labs/Randy Montoya

And any mastery of nukes means a need for the flip side of the coin: Defense against the other guy's missiles.

A missile is fired from a naval vessel during the test-firing of a new type of anti-ship cruise missile to be equipped at Korean People's Army (KPA) naval units in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang February 7, 2015. KCNA KCNA/REUTERS

The US already has missile defense systems that basically launch a missile at an incoming missile to stop it. But Selva envisions better systems that might use lasers or hypervelocity rounds.

Arguably the most important piece of the puzzle is in mastering command and control (C&C) — the various ways military leaders direct operations.

C&C means having solid communications systems and keeping hackers out of military networks. And perhaps most importantly, Selva says, is making sure that the president is "in fact the only person that has the authority for the release of [nuclear weapons]."

The Mediterranean Sea (Mar. 20, 2003) -- A Tactical Air Officer (TAO) on the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) keeps watch in the Combat Direction Center (CDC), where he monitors all air contacts in the ship's vicinity. Truman is currently deployed and is conducting missions in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class H. Dwain Willis.